All AWN Content

According to a VARIETY news report, layoffs may be imminent at newly acquired Fox Family Worldwide. The Walt Disney Company recently completed their buy out of Fox Family for a final purchase price of $5.2 billion and the changes have already begun. The companys flagship Fox Family cable channel has been renamed ABC Family and it will be rebranded with an interim ABC Family logo starting this weekend.

Animac 2002, Lleida, Catalonia, Spain. Thursday, February 14 - Sunday, February 17, 2002. Entry Deadline: Monday, December 31, 2001.Animac 2002 is a non-competitive animation festival that is a platform for screening the best animation from around the world. Animac has extended their deadline for submissions until December 31, 2001 in order to allow a larger participation. For more information contact Alfred Sesma & Margot Besora: Email: animac@paeria.es; Website: http://www.paeria.es/cultura/animac

In the first network initiative to unite all its global divisions, Cartoon Network will be airing a 12-hour marathon of fans favorite DEXTERS LABORATORY episodes, selected by viewers from around the world. Viewers can cast their votes now through November 15, 2001 by logging on to their region's Cartoon Network Website. The fan picks will be aired on all Cartoon Networks worldwide on November 18, 2001 from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm and will include the winning episode from each country.

Chuck Jones' first original animated characters created for Warner Bros. in more than 40 years made their World Wide Web debut on October 24, 2001. Warner Bros. Online's Flash-animated cartoon Chuck Jones' TIMBER WOLF, has become one of the fastest-growing sites at warnerbros.com. According to Warner Bros., nearly 750,000 fans have checked out the antics of TIMBER WOLF and more continue to log on each day. A new Webisode will premiere each week for the shows 13-week run.

Once again, a newly-released DVD has shattered all previous sales records. This time its the top grossing theatrical movie of the year, SHREK. The DreamWorks film bested the DVD sales record of 2.2 million sold set the week of October 16th by STAR WARS: EPISODE ONE. EPISODE ONE had overtaken THE MUMMY RETURNS, which previously held the record with first week DVD sales of 2 million.

Alias|Wavefront announced that its recently unveiled mental ray for Maya technology will be available as an optional plug-in renderer for Maya before the end of the year 2001. mental ray for Maya, currently in beta testing, is an optional and fully integrated plug-in renderer for Maya that offers all the features and tools available in mental images' mental ray renderer version 3.0. It will be available to customers in either node locked or floating license configurations. Alias|Wavefront will make mental ray for Maya and the mental ray Stand Alone renderer available in December 2001.

The Gnomon Workshop has released six new training videos on inverse kinematics and dynamics in Alias|Wavefront's Maya. This series, which includes two tapes on Inverse Kinematics and four more tapes on Maya's Dynamics engine, marks the fourth round of video releases and brings the total number of titles available from The Gnomon Workshop to 24. Each tape has 110 minutes of instruction. The objective of the tapes is to explain the tools with a focus on workflow, using a wide range of example effects.

Over the next six weeks the U.K.s Channel 4 will be showing a wide variety of animation, including illustrator John Callahans new project QUADS, experimental animation from Animate! and the U.K. television premiere of the acclaimed anime feature BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE. Also premiering will be a new series called CELMATES. The animation worlds answer to reality shows like BIG BROTHER, CELMATES follows a group of animators shut in a small room, competing against each other (and the clock!) to create an animated film in a sleepless 72 hours.

Here is a viewers guide to the notable animation and special effects releases on DVD and VHS for the month of November, 2001:

November 2

SHREK